3. Income tax rates are at the lowest level in 60 years. From 1944 to 1964 the top rate was a draconian 90%. When Reagan came into office the top rate was 7o%, which he helped bring down to 28%, though the average marginal top rate during his two terms was 54%.

4. The $250,000 dollar number is for adjusted gross income, after all personal and business exemptions and deductions. So you would have to make much more money than that to have an adjusted income of a quarter million dollars (Unless you are single, have no children and no mortgage payment or business deductions. Right!)

6. The idea that those making over $250,000 dollars in annual adjusted gross income are “job creators” is quite simply a fallacy:

Think about it – who do you know that makes that kind of money? Doctors and attorneys typically come to mind. Bankers. Media and financial consultants. Let’s not forget professional athletes, entertainers and musical artists. College and university deans and presidents. High level government officials and politicians. Stock brokers and hedge fund managers. Political pundits and television talking heads. There’s nothing wrong with these folks earning a lot of money but – there is not a job creator in the bunch.

But what about the CEOs and corporate executives of our largest companies? While they may have increased their companies’ stock portfolios, along with their own compensation packages, in many cases they have done so by moving as many American jobs overseas as possible. Since the first Bush tax cuts of 2001, America has lost over $5 million manufacturing jobs and closed over 42,000 factories. Of course, Wal-Mart has grown tremendously and was able to hire back many of those people at less than 20% of their former wage, and with none of the benefits. It is no mystery that Wal-Mart has based its success on the availability of cheap, sub market-priced foreign merchandise that was once made in the US.

Meanwhile, they are refusing to extend recessionary jobless benefits, saying that this $300 dollars a week is a disincentive for the unemployed to get off their lazy asses and start looking for a job. Of, course there are no jobs out there now. And when those unemployed are no longer able to spend that $300 dollars a week, there will probably be even fewer. But when you look at the typical net worth of our federal elected officials ($765,00 for a House member, $2.4 million for a Senator) it is understandable that they might be a little out of touch with middle the middle class and which Americans they more closely identify with.

In an interest-based capitalist system—there is no incentive for creating jobs or for allowing money to “trickle down” because those who are rich–get richer by investments—and these investments are NOT in the West were the economies are going down the drain and returns are bad—NO—these investments are put into the growing economies of the East—-and believe me—We Easterners don’t like it one bit—–because that’s what got us into the “Asian financial crises” mess the last time! These investors overflooded our markets with easy cash—-then pulled out—and went elsewhere—- leaving debt and destruction behind. We don’t want short term investments that benefit only the rich investor. We want long term investments that are mutually beneficial. (—and these type of investments are called “partnerships”—where both profits and risks are shared.)

And Guess where all that money the fed is printing is going to go? or all that money that the U.S. used to bail out those financial institutions?—–Yep—some of it flew to the East. And we’re not having it—-the region is looking into ways to control the inflow of money.

As I’ve said before, I am a fan of capitalism and the free market system but….I don’t think this is best exemplified with Wall St. I don’t think Adam Smith envisioned a market with the ability to have instantaneous, and often whimsical, transfers of international capital.

Reasonable investments are always welcome because that’s how economies develop…..
its not the transfers themselves—rather the very large amounts that are the problem because they screw up a country’s economics.—and in order to correct the imbalance—you end up with controls. We need a new system that takes into account the reality of interdependent global economies—but we also need a new system of “checks and balances” that ensure that money is circulated instead of stagnating in the hands of a few who keep getting richer.

VC (Venture capitalism) might also be an interesting model ?—-in this, the way to earn profts is to help create successfull businesses…and because of its partnership structure, it shares the risks as well as the profits……

The burden of taxation, wherever it is applied on, eventually ends on the shoulder of the simple man in the street. Apply tax to the simple man in the street and he gets it. Apply tax to the businessmen and it ends on the simple man in the street because when businessman was earning say 10% profit before he was taxed he will readjust to 10% after he was taxed. :-(

Take away tax on anywhere and we probably take away tax off the burden of the simple man in the street. [probably, because where businessman has advanced he has to be pushed back to where he was, to bring the effect to the people in the streets]

"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment." -Thomas Jefferson